AUSTRALIA CHARGES FOUR MORE OVER ALLEGED TERROR PLOT

SUSPECT IN ALLEGED AUSTRALIAN
TERROR PLOT DENIES CHARGE

MELBOURNE (AFP) — Australia—One of five men charged in an alleged plot to shoot up an Australian military base angrily denied he was a terrorist in court Wednesday and accused the country's troops of killing innocent people overseas. Australia on Wednesday charged four more men with planning a suicide assault on a Sydney army barracks, prompting an angry outburst from one of them, as details emerged of the alleged plot. These men appeared in court charged with preparing the Sydney attack or helping someone engage in hostile acts overseas. Police say the plan was to storm Sydney's Holsworthy base, home to thousands of troops including a major anti-extremist unit, with firearms in what would have been Australia's worst militant attack. Police said the men were linked to the Somali Islamist organization al-Shabaab and were trying to find a senior cleric who would approve the operation so they could become martyrs.

Terrorist violence is extremely rare in Australia - the unsolved 1978 bombing near the Hilton Hotel that killed two is the best-known incident - and no attacks have been carried out in the country since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. raised security threat levels worldwide. But dozens of Australians have died in terrorist attacks overseas, mostly in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings. The purported Somali-linked plot is the second major coordinated attack plan exposed in Australia in recent years. Seven men were imprisoned in the past year for a nascent plot to target thousands of spectators in an attack on a big sporting event in Australia.

Australia became a staunch U.S. ally in the war on terrorism after Sept. 11 and has deployed forces to fight insurgents in Afghanistan. Al-Shabaab has been fighting to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed transitional government. It has claimed responsibility for several high-profile bombings and shootings in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, targeting Ethiopian troops and Somali government officials. Washington has designated al-Shabaab as a terrorist group and says it has provided safe havens to al-Qaida "elements" wanted for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 236 people. The two groups have long been suspected of working together, but they have not announced a formal alliance.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Under the influence of material nature, the conditioned soul becomes absorbed in material consciousness. In this consciousness, whatever is done under the influence of the material energy is accepted by the conditioned soul as self-actuated. Actually, the soul in his pure state of existence should be in Krishna consciousness. When a person is not acting in Krishna consciousness, he is understood to be acting in material consciousness.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"The Srimad Bhagavatam - Purport in Canto 3 - Chapter 26 - Verse 6"

Thus mental absorption in social, political, pseudoreligious, national and communal consciousness is cause for bondage. During one's lifetime one has to change his activities in order to attain release from bondage. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (3.9), yajñārthāt karmano 'nyatra loko 'yam karma-bandhanah. If we do not change our consciousness in this life, whatever we do in the name of social, political, religious or communal and national welfare will be the cause of our bondage. This means we have to continue in material, conditional life. As explained in Bhagavad-gītā (15.7), manah-sasthānīndriyāni prakrti-sthāni karsati. When the mind and senses are engaged in material activities, one has to continue his material existence and struggle to attain happiness.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"The Srimad Bhagavatam - Purport in Canto 4 - Chapter 28 - Verse 20"